Geomagnetic support for directional drilling

The high-tech directional drilling (DD) procedure for the development of hydrocarbon resources requires high precision positioning of the drill string. Such accuracy can be achieved by navigation based on the Earth’s magnetic field (EMF), which ensures hitting a given target with an error of 3 m at a distance of 15 km. However, the EMF is characterized by multi-scale variability both in space and time. Therefore, the full stack of DD geomagnetic support includes a detailed, real-time estimation of the EMF spatio-temporal variability in the deposit region and geomagnetic activity forecast. Particularly strict control of a drill string orientation is required when drilling in the Arctic region. The article is devoted to modern technologies for effective accounting of the features of the EMF space-time structure to ensure precise navigation of the drill string. The paper is based on the report delivered at the RAS Presidium meeting on 11 June 2024.